Olive oil - bulk or boutique?

Well, I just made a hell of a mess in the kitchen. My friend the Francophile recently bought a 4 litre can of olive oil, and I was helping him to decant the first lot for use in the kitchen. It smelled wonderful - don't you love the scent of new olive oil? The mess came when I tried to ease the funnel we were using in the mouth of the bottle and created a huge "glug" of oil all over the benchtop. Created such an oil slick it's a wonder Greenpeace didn't show up.

Personally, I've never been all that keen on buying perishables in bulk. What do you do in your kitchen? Do you buy oils in bulk or do you go for smaller quantities, perhaps multiple bottles of different sorts?

Matilda

PS wiping up the mess, I was reminded that pure olive oil is a great emolient for the hands

[Robin Garr]

Personally, I've never been all that keen on buying perishables in bulk. What do you do in your kitchen? Do you buy oils in bulk or do you go for smaller quantities, perhaps multiple bottles of different sorts?

I'm on your side, Matilda. I usually buy olive oil in 750 ml or at the largest, 1 liter bottles. Even though we go through it fairly fast, I would worry about freshness if I bought it by the gallon. Same goes for peanut oil, which I use a fair amount in stir-fries and other Asian cooking.

Specialty oils like walnut, sesame, what have you, I buy in even smaller bottles, figuring it's better to shop more often and keep it fresh.

Always buy EVOO in 4 litre size.

No issue of freshness as long as you use it reasonably quickly (we do) and far, far cheaper than buying those stupid boutique size bottles.

We decant into a litre plastic bottle we keep beside the stove.

I do the same as Robin. My philosophy is quality over quantity.

I'm with Bill.
We buy 3 liter tins from Fairway (excellent oil, excellent price). We use a lot. We keep a smaller container on counter, refill that every few days. The tin is kept in the cellar.

To me this is more effective at keeping oil fresh than buying smaller bottles. Fairway has a huge turnover in this stuff, so always fresh. I've bought glass bottles in supermarkets that was far less fresh upon opening than the last cup in a tin. Remember it's not just air, but temps and light that make a difference.

We have always stuck to the one liter or less size, until our last trip to Micucci's in Portland. There we found they were out of the one liter size of Partanna, so we went with the three liter size. At this point we are just about through with the second liter and it is holding up fine.

Interestingly, I just had this conversation (argument) with a house guest. He was surprised that my olive oil bottle was 750 ml. Told me to buy larger containers as it would be much cheaper. I use olive oil sparingly and different types. I also use several different types of other oils on a regular basis (vegetable, peanut, walnut, sesame, etc.) and purchase everything in small quantities for the freshness factor. He didn't seem to understand this. But, the one thing I can't tolerate is the taste of rancid oil in a recipe -- and I can always pick up the taste. UGGHHH!

If there is anything likely to get too old before I use it, it would be the small bottles of special oils, not the big tins of oil, because I tend to save them for special use and then sometimes find I saved them too long..

I use oil for cooking much more than I do butter, so we go through it reasonably quickly, but I think that the normal EVOO lasts much longer than people think before going off.

[Jenise]

I'm all over the freshness factor and, like Jo Ann, can taste rancid oil from a mile away. However, I cook 29 meals out of 30 at home, and olive oil's my fat of choice. I always have neutral and EVOO's on hand for cooking, and other smaller bottles of condiment level quality for raw applications. I would guess that I'd have little or no trouble using up larger bottles of the cooking oils if I could get them; however, liter or 1.5L bottles are typically all that's available to me locally (sourced from Costco because of the high turnover).

In reasonable quantities, not too small, not too large...it's the "Goldilocks" purchase!

Bulk up, Baby. Rancidity is extremely unlikely in olive or peanut oil. How about in all my years never once?

Bulk. I buy 3 or 6 litres at a time (I put it in my doughs as well). Never ever had a problem with rancid olive oil. We once bought gourmet first press unfiltered olive oil that only had a short shelf life, but for standard filtered EVOO, no problems at all. I think the storage in a tin preserves it better than in a glass bottle anyway. Canola, now that's a different story, that does go smelly after a while. But we've found olive oil to be fine, as well as grapeseed oil - no problems there either.

Bulk up, Baby. Rancidity is extremely unlikely in olive or peanut oil. How about in all my years never once?

Agree with Chef. We have had a liter of the so-called "Light" OO that we use when "vegetable oil" is called for, go rancid. It was after it had been open for several months. We now keep it in the fridge, and nuke it when needed.

I often buy half gallon jugs of EVOO at the Farmer's Market. I keep it in a cool, dark cabinet and fill my smaller bottle as needed. I go through it pretty fast - I'd say 6 months at the most. I've never had it turn rancid, but some evoo's and I'm not sure what time of year I buy these, develops solid matter at the bottom. I don't know what this is and when it does happen I just toss out the last 1/2 inch of the oil. Am I right in tossing or is this just a natural occurrence?

The first pressing has some teeny-weeny fragments of olives.

I don't buy EVOO in such large quantities because I don't use enough of it. I do buy peanut oil in gallon containers that I store i the fridge after opening to prevent the oil going rancid.

-Paul W.

Both.
We have a gallon can of xvoo in the pantry at all times. We use it for frying and sauteeing, and it's good enough to dress a daily salad with.
I also will always have a 1/2 liter or so of some really good stuff, which we use when the taste of the oil is going to be a star player in the dish.

Haven't had a problem with rancidity. We go through it pretty quickly.